Smithsonian Magazine articles

by Stanley Meisler

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Daniel Libeskind: Architect at Ground Zero
From his Jewish Museum in Berlin to his proposal for the World Trade Center site, Daniel Libeskind designs buildings that reach out to history and humanity.
March 2003

Mischief Maker *
A rare exhibition of Joan Miró's whimsical, brightly painted bronzes highlights the unbridled playfulness of his later works.
March 2003

Man in the Middle: Travels with Kofi Annan *
We travel to Africa with Kofi Annan, broker of the unanimous U.N. resolution to allow weapons inspectors back into Iraq.
January 2003

Gaudí's Gift *
On the 150th anniversary of Antoni Gaudí’s birth, adoring crowds make the pilgrimage to Barcelona to gaze upon the Catalan architect’s astonishing and whimsical works.
July 2002

Goya & His Women
A lavish exhibition of the Spanish artist's works, including his famous painting The Naked Maja, stirs new debate about his relationships with the women he painted.
April 2002

Points of View
Artist Paul Signac steps out of the shadow of his celebrated colleague, pointillist Georges Seurat, to star in a new exhibition at the Met.
October 2001

The Painter and the President
In his "Lansdowne" portrait of Washington, as well as those of others, Gilbert Stuart caught the essence of his sitter.
August 2001

William Merritt Chase *
Praised by critics, admired by colleagues and respected by students, the distinguished 19th-century artist produced paintings and pastels of gentle beauty.
February 2001

Art Nouveau
Whiplash curves, dragonflies and arabesques abound in a new exhibition celebrating the popular turn-of-the-century style.
October 2000

The Poetic Vision of Spanish Sculptor Eduardo Chillida *
Creating monumental works in iron, steel, and wood, Spanish sculptor Eduardo Chillida has come to see space itself as material to mold.
July 2000

Splendors of Topkapi, Palace of the Ottoman Sultans *
Treasures from an Istanbul palace reveal the power and mystique of the sultans who lived here.
February 2000

A Masterpiece Born of Saint Anthony's Fire *
Matthias Grünewald’s 16th-century Isenheim Altarpiece glorified suffering and offered comfort to those afflicted with a dread disease.
September 1999

Sculpture Blossoms in a New Garden on the Mall
The National Gallery's new sculpture garden offers a bouquet of modern masters.
August 1999

John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent made his fortune and reputation as a portrait painter of beautiful women and influential men.
February 1999

Pierre Bonnard
The masterful modernist manipulated light, form and focus to create color-strewn scenes of everyday life.
July 1998

The Case of the Disappearing Frescoes
How a mustachioed Barcelona artist foiled an elaborate plot to spirit Catalonia's priceless Romanesque paintings away from their homeland.
April 1998

The House that Art Built
Money is no object for the Getty Trust, as it builds its collections and does good works around the globe. Now it has a new home overlooking Los Angeles.
December 1997

Ahead of the curve: the art of Charles Rennie Mackintosh *
The Scottish architect and designer, in vogue at the turn of the century, is hot again, and coming to America.
January 1997

At the Hermitage, an artful secret comes to light
A fabulous cache of Impressionist and other paintings, hidden for 50 years, is surfacing in a new exhibit at the Hermitage, Russia's museum of the czars.
March 1995

Take a look at a town that wouldn't lie down and die *
The mill closing augured ill for Chemainus. But spruced up, with bright murals everywhere, it's turned into a Canadian tourist haven.
May 1994

For Joan Miró, poetry and painting were the same *
And although the works of the noted Catalan artist appear spontaneous and free, they were really the product of disciplined intensity.
November 1993

'...All they are saying is Give Prague a chance'
American twentysomethings are flocking to the city of Vaclav Havel, Franz Kafka, old Beatles tunes and booming new businesses.
June 1993

Say what they may, the feisty doctor had an artful eye
Wielding his throat-tonic fortune, Albert Barnes silenced the critics with a collection, now at the National Gallery, that speaks for itself.
May 1993

The golden age of Andalusia under the Muslim sultans
From the 8th to the 15th century, Islam ruled in Spain's rich southern region; it's priceless artwork is now on view at the Met in New York.
August 1992

Spain's Prado got its start as a storeroom
When the king and queen redecorated in 1818, those old paintings just didn't go with the wallpaper. And there was this empty building...
January 1992

After the Wall, a national treasure is rediscovered
East Berlin's Pergamon Museum, home to a rare collection of Hellenistic art and architecture, now welcomes visitors from the Western world.
October 1991

Long live Paris, with her pleasures and complexities
As an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston shows us, the queen of cities was definitely the place to be at the fin de siècle.
August 1991

People thought this great church was never to be finished
At Washington National Cathedral, after 83 years of work, plans are set to celebrate its completion - a triumph of faith and reason.
June 1990

Casting a glasnost glow on once-obscured artists
To be an independent artist in the USSR until recently was to live a secret, underground existence. Things are very different these days.
December 1989

The lively rebirth of a battered but indomitable Glasgow
Economic blows and urban blight savaged the great city, a fortress of Victorian grandeur, but now things are looking up.
October 1989

Soutine: The power and the fury of an eccentric genius *
Isolated and tormented, he once said that he was going to murder his paintings, but fortunately they are still with us.
November 1988

The world of Bosch *
With his bizarre and fearsome images, the enigmatic master of apocalypse still speaks to us across five centuries.
March 1988

Vienna's anguished artists presaged the brilliant city's fate
As the old Hapsburg order disintegrated and anti-Semitism grew, Klimt, Schiele and Kokoschka gave form to their foreboding.
August 1986